ZHANG Qian, WANG Zhongbin, LI Yongjian
In recent years, China's food delivery industry has undergone substantial growth, driven by the rapid expansion of the platform economy and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Food delivery services have not only lessened customers' sensitivity to delays associated with in-person dining but have also generated increased market demand for merchants. It is noteworthy that the majority of merchants employ a centralized operational mode, which combines food delivery and dine-in services within a single establishment. However, certain merchants opt for a decentralized approach, wherein they establish dedicated food delivery outlets exclusively handling food delivery orders while maintaining an offline restaurant. To examine the impact of food delivery channels on merchant decision-making, this study establishes a dual-channel service system operating within a congestion-prone environment. It characterizes the equilibrium strategy of customers under the two operational policies and investigates how the quality of food delivery services affects merchant profits. Furthermore, the research reveals the optimal operational approach based on varying levels of delivery quality. The key findings of the study are as follows. 1) In the case of decentralized operations, the service capacity allocated to the food delivery channel by the merchant exhibits a non-monotonic relationship with its quality. This implies that higher food delivery quality may gradually prompt the merchant to shift its focus toward the offline channel. 2) Despite the fact that higher food delivery quality has the potential to attract more customers, the study surprisingly finds that improving food delivery quality may actually reduce merchant profits in both centralized and decentralized scenarios. 3) While decentralized operations may lead to decreased order processing efficiency, adopting this approach can effectively mitigate the cannibalization effect of the food delivery channel and result in higher profits, particularly when food delivery quality is high. Consequently, centralized mode is recommended only when the food delivery quality falls within an intermediate range. Additionally, we further validated the robustness of this conclusion from various perspectives, including marginal costs and delivery fees.